Disneyland/Anaheim Day 1

We Love all things Disney.

When I married Ryan he already owned all the full length animated movies. He got paid for babysitting in Disney movies as a teenager. Needless to say our obsession has grown since we both are such big fans.  (Side Note: Playing Disney trivia with him is NOT fun.  You never have a chance of winning) 

When we found out the JEA National Convention was in Anaheim again, we were super excited to take his students and share the Magic of Disney with them.  We brought 24 students with us and out of them 8 had never been to Disneyland or had only been when they were super small and didn't remember it. 

Here is my recap of our trip.  The first day was spent entirely at the parks.  We had 4 day park hoppers and we took full advantage...at least I did.  I  was not attending the confernce so I spent most of my days at the resort. 

Outisde our hotel super excited to walk over to the park.

All of us (I took the picture) outside the front gate.

On the train, one of the rides we rarely take.  We discovered if you get on it and ride it to Fantasyland, it is about the same amount of time it takes you to walk there.  Some people getting off the train with us were "First Timers" and they had a 4 and 2 year old daughter.  We encouraged them to go get in the relatively short line to meet the princesses, that was where we were headed.  They really didn't know the princesses well, just from their pictures on their panties.  We waited in line with them for about 30 minutes and got to talk to them about their first Disney trip.  It didn't occur to us until later that we really had no real motivation for meeting the princesses, again.  We had all their autographs and pictures with all of them from previous trips. 
Watching those 2 little girls meet them was one of the highlights of the whole week.  They were so sweet giving them big hugs and holding on so tight for the pictures.  Their mom was crying, as was their aunt.  It was such a fun way to start our day.  It was then that we realized we wanted to do something different this trip.  The kids were not with us and we didn't really have to do what they normally want to do when we visit.

Tiana is one of Emma's favorite princesses.  Ry took a picture with her and sent it by text to one of his students back home.  She was super excited for him to meet her.   Tiana used to sing in the mornings in New Orleans and we asked her when we could catch her show.  She doesn't sing there anymore, but if lots of people ask for it to be brought back they may let her do it again.  So put in your vote.  We want to hear her sing!

Ariel is beautiful!  Belle is so kind.  She has always been my favorite princess.

We don't buy a lot of souvenirs so we like to try them on and take pictures.  Most of our memorabilia is in the form of pressed pennies. 

This trip was all about doing things and discovering parts of Disney we had never done or seen.  This is the golden spike.  It is the exact center of Disneyland and millions of people just walk right by it every year.  It's on the bridge to Sleeping Beauty Castle if you want to stop and find it next time.

They removed the CALIFORNIA letters outside California Adventure and are creating a new facade outside the front gate. There is also lots of  new rides being built inside the park itself.  This wall was built outside one of the construction zones.  We had to stop to pose next to our favorites.

Yes those are oven mitts.  So fun!  Maybe one day I will have a Mickey Kitchen.

This was one of my biggest goals for this trip. Find Club 33. If you care click the link, if not whatever. Point is we found it, and we enlisted several students on our hunt. It was fun! It is in New Orleans if you care to search it out yourself.

This is the first time I have met the Mad Hatter.  He was hilarious!  His accent was silly, his nose was HUGE and he was super fun to talk to. 

More later on our fun adventure!